Fig. 1: Geometry and electronic structure of the defect.

a The atomic structure of the CiOi defect complex, consisting of neighbouring carbon (Ci−Si1) and oxygen (Oi−Si2) split-interstitial defects. b Kohn–Sham level structure of the \({{{{{\rm{C}}}}}_{{{{\rm{i}}}}}{{{{\rm{O}}}}}_{{{{\rm{i}}}}}}^{0}\) defect ground state (\({}^{1}{A}^{{\prime} }\)), singlet (1A″), and triplet (3A″) excited states in the spin-polarised HSE06 calculation. VBM, CBM, and C labels show the valence band maximum, the conduction band minimum and the dangling bond orbital of the carbon atom, respectively.